Costlier LPG sparks quiet crisis in migrant homes in Delhi

NEw new new delhi: In a cramped rented elbow room in northwestward Delhi’s Prem Nagar, 25-year-old painter Chandan Poddar is doing the math once again. He earns ₹18,000 a month and shares aliving space with nine other migrant workers. Together, they spend close to ₹3,000 on a 5-kg LPG cylinders and it lasts them about 10 days. Now, with the price of the small cylinder being raised by nearly ₹300, the financials no longer make sense.On Friday, high international energy prices amid the West Asia crisis led to a steep 47.8% increase in the price of the commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used by industries and migrant labourers from ₹2,078.50 per 19 kg cylinder to ₹3,071.50, industry executives said. The price of a 5kg free trade LPG (FTL) would also go up in that proportion, they said.For migrant workers, street vendors and low-income families, the smaller cylinder has been a lifeline. It has a cheaper upfront cost than the standard 14.2-kg cylinder and is more accessible for those without formal connections.Across Delhi’s working-class neighbourhoods — from Chilla Khadar along the Yamuna floodplains and the JJ clusters near Chanakyapuri to the urban villages of Shahpur Jat and Garhi — the sharp rise in costs is triggering a quiet but widespread distress. “It just seems like we are being pushed to move back to our villages. We are daily wage earners and we can’t afford to waste an entire day trying to get the small cylinder refilled every few days. The bigger cylinder is out of question,” said Poddar.In Chanakyapuri, outside a cluster of four single-room shanties near Keventer’s Lane, 60-year-old Kushila Devi surveyed her family’s cooking arrangements. A traditional wood-fired chulha sits beside a small LPG stove.“We will have to go back to wood. I will teach my daughters-in-law how to cook on chulhas. They only use the stove and cylinder,” she said.Along the Yamuna banks in Chilla Khadar, the transition was already visible. In several homes, unused 5-kg cylinders lay gathering dust, while chulhas burned steadily nearby.“Why should we spend so much?” asked Sabal Mahto, a vegetable grower in the area. “The weather is hot and dry, so wood is easily available. The cylinder is expensive and even getting it refilled takes time.”The impact extends beyond households, into livelihoods. In Garhi village, Kundan Kumar was provided meals and paid him ₹20,000 a month as an earthmover driver. But as the cost of LPG rose, meals were discontinued and his salary increased marginally by ₹1,000.“How can I manage cooking all meals at home with these costs? It didn’t make sense,” Kumar said. He quit his job and now takes up odd work closer to home, relying on a small cylinder for basic cooking. With the latest price hike, even that fragile arrangement is under strain.Street vendors, who form the backbone of Delhi’s informal food economy, are facing a similar squeeze.50-year-old Shiv Nath Prasad, who has been running a street food stall in Lajpat Nagar for two years. He needs a new 5-kg cylinder every five days. “The past month has been the most difficult due to the gas shortage. I’ve managed to avoid increasing prices so far, but now I might have to. And if I do, I could lose customers,” he said.Students, too, are beginning to feel the pinch. Ishan Arora, who runs a PG in North Campus, said the LPG shortage has left them with little choice but to switch to induction cooktops for residents. “Procuring cylinders has become a challenge, with black market rates reportedly soaring to around ₹5,000 for domestic cylinders. Yet, raising rents isn’t really an option. Tenants could easily shift elsewhere, which would put the business under even greater financial strain.”